The Mages' Winter of Death: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume Two

by Charles Williamson

  “Well met, Commander Farrier. Excuse me a moment, there is an acorn I fancy high in that oak.” Michael secretly cast an alter weight spell that he’d learned from the fairies at Fay Woods. It reduced his weight by two thirds. He ran to the ancient oak and scampered up to one of the highest branches, grabbed an acorn, and hopped from branch to branch on his way down. He ran back to the commander and handed him the acorn.

  The commander looked at the acorn in his hand and said, “Are you willing to attempt this tonight.”

  “Yes sir,” Michael replied.

  “If you get in, how will you deal with the men on the walls?”

  “The same apothecary who developed the cure for the white pneumonia, Gertrude of Southport, has given me four glass bottles that will release a gas that causes sleep to anyone who inhales it. The guards will sleep until well past dawn. It’s expensive stuff, and I have only the four doses so I hope there are only four or fewer guards.”

  “If we get through the door, I will have your guards in the vanguard so they can come to your aid and get you safely from the combat. I assume your jewel-encrusted sword is for show. You hope to blind your adversary with the sparkle, but that will do no good in our nighttime attack. Michael, I am truly most impressed that you climbed this tall oak tree in your full armor, perhaps like a warrior monkey from the ancient tales of the Kingdom of Green Jungle.”

  “As far as I know, I have no monkeys in my ancestry, but I wouldn’t rule that out completely. I am no professional soldier, commander. I will gladly leave the fray after your two hundred professional soldiers enter the temple grounds.”

  “Seriously Michael, I’m certain that Governor Talton would be most annoyed if I got his emissary killed. Get safely out as soon as you open the gates. I will be leading my men personally. Since to camp here and do nothing would be the end of my career, I might as well go for victory and redemption or death in battle. Meet us at sunset at the main gate to Hearthshire Town. I will have every man in my command ready by then. May Father God and Perry’s Light guide your climb.”

  Once they were back in their own camp, Michael commented, “The clouds are closing in quickly; it looks like snow by nightfall. Snow will dampen my sounds but leave footsteps of my passage.”

  Gregory Oxbow said, “Seeing steps approaching in the snow would certainly cause me to draw my sword even if the person making them was invisible.”

  Although Michael knew that fairy magic could reduce his weight so that he would barely touch the snow, in that condition he could not carry anything substantial or wear armor. They would just drop through his insubstantial form. He couldn’t appear at the opened temple gate in the nude and explain that it was a part of forest magic. He thought it over and decided that life was full of risks, and the footprints were a risk he would have to live with.

  That night as darkness approached, Michael, Jim, and the four Oxbow brothers broke camp and rode their horses to the main gate of Hearthshire Town. It was a town that both Jim and Michael knew well since they had spent their apprenticeships here. Michael expected to keep his helmet on most of the time, but there was still some risk that a townsperson would recognize him.

  There was something very important to him still in this nearly empty town. His mentor, the murdered master healer William, had owned a library of over a thousand books. They contained much of history of the seven kingdoms. There were detailed accounts of Glastamear’s early history and even books that described the seven kingdoms before the religion of Perry Ascendant. It also contained hundreds of books on healing magic. He wanted to take many of those books to the healer enclave at Rock Point. None of the fleeing healers there had brought books, but the island town would be the location for the training of most future healers. It needed that library.

  Waiting at the gate was Commander Farrier and about twenty soldiers. He spoke to Michael. “I’ve been infiltrating small groups. They’ll be in the buildings that overlook the square in front of the temple fortress. With this new snowfall, it will be easy to see when the gate opens because of the reflected light. As soon as that happens we’ll be charging into the temple compound. I know where the barracks and apartments are located, and we still hope to take them without their armor. Almost all of us have been inside at one time or another so we know the area.”

  Michael nodded to show he understood the plan.

  “Michael, I was serious about your moving to safety once the gates are open. Father God willing, I’ll see you before dawn. Thank you Michael Son-of-William. You show unusual bravery for a merchant.”

  Jim and the Oxbow brothers took their horses to a nearby empty stable and followed the commander to a hiding place near the temple. Michael walked through the rapidly falling snow using the spell night surgery to improve his vision so that the scene was as clear as in full daylight. Michael climbed to a manor house rooftop near the temple where he could get a good view of the walls surrounding the temple compound. There were three knights on guard; mostly they kept to the covered walkway and guard huts rather than make a full pass along the walls on this cold and snowy night. He saw an obstructed corner where he could climb the wall once he reduced his own weight. He would leave tracks as he walked to the spot, but he hoped they would not be visible to the nearby guard.

  He climbed down from the manor’s roof and cast the naiad spell transparency. With his body invisible, he walked quietly to the wall, reduced his weight and began to search for handholds in the wall. The snow made many handholds and cracks visible by highlighting any small defect in the wall that could hold the snow. Fifteen minutes later he climbed over the crenellations onto the archers’ platform. He could still detect the manna of the guards even though their spell casting was blocked, so he knew the exact location of everyone in the temple compound who had manna.

  The first guard he reached was sitting in a straight chair with his legs up on a table. He was barely awake. Michael cast surgery sleep and caught the chair as the unconscious guard fell backwards. Michael needed a cast of dwarfish strength to lower the armored knight’s heavy body without the clang of steel on stone.

  He made his way slowly to the section of wall with the second knight. As he got near, he saw the guard stand on a platform that lifted him a pace above the archers’ platform. It was only as Michael reached for him casting the sleep spell, that he realized that the knight had stepped onto the platform to relieve himself through the crenellation in the fortress wall. Once unconscious, the knight fell over the wall slamming against the wall three times before thudding to the snowy town square in a broken tangle.

  Michael could see that none of the manna signs within the sleeping quarters showed movement, but the manna of the third guard was charging over to the location of the fall. When he rounded the corner, the knight was running with sword drawn holding it in the ready position with both hands. Michael had to do something to keep him from calling for help.

  The guard could see his footprints, and Michael recognized the signs of recognition when the guard realized there was an invisible attacker nearby. The knight protector swung his two handed sword as he approached, and the narrow archers’ platform gave Michael little room to dodge. A few seconds later, as the second swing missed, Michael dived toward the knight’s feet, passing under his third swing. With a quick cast of his sleep spell the knight began to slump down, but as he did he fell forward, his body pushing against the unbalanced healer who was trying to stand.

  The fall from the archers’ platform was so quick that Michael hardly realized that he was falling into the temple courtyard before he impacted on the granite surface. Pain engulfed him, and he fought it down with a healing hands spell. His right leg was broken in a difficult compound fracture and bent at an impossible angle. He struggled until he was able to align the bones in his broken leg, nearly passing out in pain. After he moved the broken leg into the proper position, he began the difficult master healer cast of knit bones. About ten minutes later he was able to hobble over to the main ga
tes using his sword for support, remove the bar, and push one side of it open while reversing his transparency spell.

  He fell face first in the snow as the soldiers charged forward. He saw the commander followed closely by his friends. Commander Farrier said only, “Take care of him.” His friends picked him up and rushed down a side street. By the time they were two blocks away, they could clearly hear the clash of arms. Michael saw where they were and said, “That house, I need to go to that house.”

  Jim replied, “It’s William’s house. I can get us in if it still recognizes my hand.

  The door was locked, but Jim reached to put his hand on a metal plate and it opened. The house had been built twelve centuries earlier when magic objects like this lock were more common. Since both Michael and Jim had been apprentices at this house, the ancient enchanted lock knew them.

  They carried Michael inside the house that was his home for many years before the pogrom began. A woman came out of the first floor kitchen prepared to defend herself holding a long kitchen knife. Both Michael and Jim had their helmets off, and she ran forward to embrace Sir James Neville and then she hugged Michael. She was the housekeeper Megan. She began to boss everyone around insisting that they take Michael up to his former room while she made some healing soup and then built a fire to warm his fourth floor bedroom. The house was very cold. Since the death of William last summer, no coal or firewood had been delivered to the house in preparation for this bitterly cold winter.

  Chapter 11

  Even though Jim, Jacob, and Roger were healers, they did not know the master skills needed to stop the internal bleeding, finish knitting the broken leg, or repair the spine damage from the fall. Michael would have to work on himself. With his friends help, he stabilized his own condition and decided to sleep for five hours before beginning the most difficult part of the healing. He cast surgery sleep on himself.

  When he woke near dawn, he contacted Diana with mage thought-talk. “Oh it was nothing really dangerous. I was invisible and a guard fell and knocked me off a wall.”

  The return thought was sharp. “And just what were you doing sneaking around on top of that wall?”

  “I opened the gates so that the local commander’s cohorts could enter the compound and root out the rogue knight protectors. Their commander needed to take back the city by catching them without their armor. Jim, the Oxbow Brothers, and I didn’t take any part in the fighting. I promised I’d try and be a real healer and not a warrior hero.”

  “I love you and was worried when you didn’t contact me last night. Keep safe my love.”

  An hour after dawn, Jim, Peter, and Gregory decided to discover if the attack against the knight protectors was a success. Jacob and Roger stayed with the sleeping Michael, while Megan busied herself with trying to make a breakfast for everyone using the meager provisions remaining in the basement storerooms. She had lived alone in the house with the doors locked and windows barred since William’s death, and during that five months, she had used most of the stored grain, dried fruit, preserved vegetables, and all the smoked meat from the larder.

  Jim and the Oxbow brothers had been playing the role of the bodyguards of a wealthy merchant. Michael had done all of the talking, but they would be recognized by their armor, a distinctive style of hardened leather and chainmail with eagle helmets displaying flowing black plumes. When they approached the temple compound, a guard recognized them.

  “Guards of Michael Son-of-William, greetings. Commander Farrier has been asking if we’ve seen any of you. Please go to the office he’s using on the third floor to talk to him. I salute you and your employer, we owe Michael thanks for our victory against these rogues.”

  The temperature was still below freezing and the snow was about one hand deep in the courtyard when they entered through the open gates. They found a pile of about twenty-five bodies in nightshirts tossed haphazardly into a pile that was being slowly covered with the falling snow. These knight protectors had never gotten their armor on before the onslaught of two hundred soldiers of the King’s Own.

  There was another row of perhaps thirty bodies covered in hastily made shrouds, which Jim assumed were the soldiers killed in the ferocious battle that had taken place a few hours earlier. Even in their nightshirts, knight protectors were so well trained that they had taken a greater number of lightly armored soldiers into the shadowy pit of reincarnation with them. The smell of blood and death was strong even in the cold, but scores of soldiers were busy cleaning the temple area and taking care of their fallen friends.

  When they reached the third floor of the temple dormitory, a guard pointed them toward an office at the end of the hallway. Jim removed his helmet and knocked. Peter and Gregory remained outside.

  “Enter,” the gruff voice of Commander Farrier called out.

  “Sir, we were told you wanted to see us,” Jim replied.

  The commander looked at him long and hard. Jim’s accent had given away his origin as part of the Glastamear gentry. Finally, the commander showed recognition and nodded.

  “How is Michael Son-of-William? When I inspected the courtyard after the battle, I saw where he fell. We found two sleeping knight protectors still in their armor and another one who had fallen to his death, so I know Michael’s potion worked, but I fear some of it got into his own lungs causing him to fall.”

  “We have put him in an empty house a few blocks away. He’s sleeping. We think he will be able to travel in a week or less.”

  “Good. What is your name, do I know you?”

  “Sir my name is Jim. I don’t believe we’ve ever met.”

  After a pause he smiled and said, “You have no need to equivocate. Your secret is safe with me. I recognize now that you are Sir James Neville, fourth son of the baron of the Red Marshes and champion of the Grand Tournament of Min Hollow about ten years ago. I also know you as a healer who trained here in Hearthshire for four years. Sir James, how the mighty have fallen, from the son of a famous and prominent family with a history of service to the crown that goes back for twenty centuries to a lowly guard for a merchant. I will keep your secret if you will help my injured. I always disapproved of the pogrom. King Justin would never have inflicted such a horror; killing harmless healers led to this anarchy, death, and collapse of order.”

  “Commander, I would be most grateful if you keep my secret and very willing to help your injured.”

  “Good we have a deal. Your merchant employer has done the crown a great service. As acting governor, I owe him a reward. He’s a merchant, not a noble; he will expect something for his service.”

  “The house where he is resting was owned by William a master healer who died without heir. The house now belongs to the crown, and as acting governor you have the power to give it to Michael as a reward; we could also use some fuel and food.”

  “It will be done. I will come to the house in a few days and tell him about the gift. Now my injured men need your help. Go do it.”

  Jim left the office in a daze. He’d been a fool to be the one to take the lead in talking to the governor while Michael was not available. He was a head taller and much heavier than most men, and it hadn’t occurred to him that his accent would immediately identify him as part of the gentry. He had been very young when he won a tournament, and he thought no one would even remember the victory. He knew that he had looked very different ten years earlier.

  Jim was pleased at the chance to use his healing skills, but if he tended the soldiers for a week, everyone in the King’s Own unit would know he was actually a healer. Today, there were no knight protectors or priests left in the whole city, but in the future it might be very dangerous for healers in Hearthshire Town.

  In any case, he was pleased that Michael, Jacob and Roger had not been recognized as healers. Michael had grown a beard, and he was of rather slight build and ordinary height so people were much less likely to recognize him. Jacob and Roger had only been occasional visitors to the city, they were not known to m
any outside the Healers’ Guild. He sent Peter and Gregory to pick up the supplies he’d requested and take them back to the house. They would also let Michael know of events if he awakened. Jim went to the injured and began to heal them.

  It was two days later when Commander Farrier with an escort of ten men knocked on the door of William’s large four-story townhouse. Megan answered the door with Peter and Gregory standing with her. They were not wearing armor, but it was obvious that they were formidable men.

  Megan spoke first, “Welcome Commander Farrier. Michael was hoping you’d visit today. He’s much better and reading in the library on the second floor. This way please.”

  She led the commander to a spacious room lined with books and scrolls and decorated with precious objects from all of the seven kingdoms and even some ancient paintings from the legend times. Peter and Gregory showed the acting governor’s escort to the large kitchen for some hot cider and goat cheese biscuits.

  Michael stood as the commander entered, but he motioned Michael back into his leather chair and took the one next to him. “Michael Son-of-William, you made our victory possible. I thank you both for your plan to get us in, and your daring climb that made our surprise entrance possible.”

  “Commander, I should say governor now, I am very pleased at your victory even though I know the cost was great. Jim said thirty-two dead.”

  Farrier nodded with a sad expression, and then smiled and said, “I see you are healing well from that fall. I’m sure it helps to have a secret healer in your guard escort. I wish I had the foresight to have hidden one or two among my men. Seriously, Jim has nothing to fear from me or my men. He’s saved at least a dozen of us. I will always keep your secret.”

  “Thank you governor. Jim is a friend as well as a guard.”

  “We have enough food for the King’s Own for the next month. We can also help those few citizens who remain in the city, but it would be a great kindness if Governor Talton could send us food aid. With enough provisions, we could encourage the residents to return to their homes and make things right in this city.”